10/09/2014

Rumors are swirling that Sony's plans for a slew of Spider-Man films and spin-offs is falling apart. Earlier this year Sony announced they're full Spider-Man movie release schedule for the next few years and they made it clear that they're taking the one superhero property they own, Spider-Man, and making a huge cinematic universe around it just like Marvel has. Unfortunately, the property is limited and some truly bizarre movie decisions were made. They decided to make a movie out of villains like the Sinister Six and Venom and scheduled release dates. Now, surprising to no one, rumors are swirling that the plan is falling apart.

The original plan has Drew Goddard's Sinister Six film out in 2016 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 following in 2018. First, Drew McWeeny at Hitfix says that Sony is trying to talk Marvel into making a cross-over film. He said, "I'm hearing that there are some very cool 'Spider-Man' plans being discussed that would help Sony refocus their enormously important franchise while also opening up some connections in the onscreen Marvel movie universe that would blow fandom's minds. Will it work out? I don't know. I would love to be able to state for sure that it's happening. What seems clear from what I've heard is that Marvel wants to be able to play with all of their characters, and if they can make that work creatively and on a corporate level, they will, and that means the world gets bigger again." This is the dream of many comic book fans since Spider-Man is so iconic and really plays a key role in a lot of stories between the other Marvel characters. It feels insane that he's left out.

In the past head of Sony Pictures Amy Pascal told Ain't It Cool News she would "never ever ever" give up the franchise. Considering it's made the studio billions, it's not surprising. Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige said it's possible saying, "I think there are some stories that will fit beautifully into a cross. Spider-Man would be incredible mixed up with those other universes. But if we want to do that, the crossovers, it has to be a story that is absolutely centered on Spider-Man. We cannot be second banana to anything out there. Because this is the king. This is the one that influenced young people from birth. I’m not preaching, but Spider-Man, Peter Parker, who is in all of us, is too important to go in and use it as a sidepiece for corporate purposes. The studio may disagree with me, some fans may disagree with me. I don’t care." Avi Arad did disagree and said,"I think I’m probably a little bit of the militant here. I think it will take a moment in which we’ve run out of ideas. There's so much to tell about Spider-Man. There's so much to tell about the Sinister Six. The relationship between Spider-Man and Venom will bring a whole other world in." But, things might be changing.

Badass Digest says "Sony is going to soft reboot Spider-Man with The Sinister Six, having a new actor playing a Spidey who works with the villains The Dirty Dozen style to take down a larger threat." This is actually not too surprising since Andrew Garfield has been very cagey about his future with the franchise as reported by /Film. In fact, Garfield says he's not important to the franchise saying "I know more than I’m allowed to say right now. I can say I’m really excited about Drew Goddard, who’s going to be writing and directing The Sinister Six movie. And whether I’m involved in that or not is kind of immaterial." Considering he's the biggest name in the Spider-Man franchise it's odd that he would downplay his role in the series.
Another thing Badass Digest said is that "Sony is going to put Spider-Man on the shelf for four or five years and see if they can develop any of the side characters into their own franchises." So, it sounds like they want to do Spider-Man without Spider-Man which is bizarre.
The final bit of studio shattering news is that the long-delayed Venom movie "is functionally dead again."

These are all rumors of course, but even if half of them are true it proves that Sony's bitten off more than they can chew and are beginning to feel the pain. Whatever happens, it sounds like we're going to see a very different Spider-Man going forward and it could be for the best.

Should Spider-Man be in a Marvel Studios movie? Are you looking forward to a Sinister Six or Venom movie? What do you think is going to happen?

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